Martin Fleischmann
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Martin Fleischmann FRS (29 March 1927 – 3 August 2012) was a British
chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...
who worked in
electrochemistry Electrochemistry is the branch of physical chemistry concerned with the relationship between electrical potential difference, as a measurable and quantitative phenomenon, and identifiable chemical change, with the potential difference as an outco ...
. By Associated Press. Premature announcement of his
cold fusion Cold fusion is a hypothesized type of nuclear reaction that would occur at, or near, room temperature. It would contrast starkly with the "hot" fusion that is known to take place naturally within stars and artificially in hydrogen bombs and p ...
research with
Stanley Pons Bobby Stanley Pons (born August 23, 1943) is an American electrochemist known for his work with Martin Fleischmann on cold fusion in the 1980s and 1990s. Early life Pons was born in Valdese, North Carolina. He attended Valdese High School, then ...
, regarding excess heat in heavy water, caused a media sensation and elicited skepticism and criticism from many in the scientific community.


Personal life

Fleischmann was born in
Karlovy Vary Karlovy Vary (; german: Karlsbad, formerly also spelled ''Carlsbad'' in English) is a spa town, spa city in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 46,000 inhabitants. It lies on the confluence of the rivers Ohře and Teplá. ...
, Czechoslovakia, in 1927. His father was a wealthy lawyer and his mother the daughter of a high-ranking Austrian civil officer. Since his father was of Jewish heritage, Fleischmann's family moved to the Netherlands, and then to England in 1938, to avoid Nazi persecution. His father died of the complications of injuries received in a Nazi prison, after which Fleischmann lived for a period with his mother in a leased cottage in Rustington, Sussex. His early education was obtained at Worthing High School for Boys. After serving in the Czech Airforce Training Unit during the war, he moved to London to study for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in chemistry at
Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...
. His PhD was awarded in 1951, under the supervision of Professor Herrington, for his thesis on the diffusion of electrogenerated hydrogen through palladium foils. He met Sheila, his future wife, as a student and remained married to her for 62 years.


Career


Electrochemistry (1950s to 1983)

Fleischmann's professional career was focused almost entirely on fundamental electrochemistry. Fleischmann went on to teach at King's College, Durham University, which in 1963 became the newly established
University of Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick univer ...
.King's College
, Official Records of Durham University.
In 1967, Fleischmann became Professor of Electrochemistry at the
University of Southampton , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...
, occupying the Faraday Chair of Chemistry. From 1970 to 1972, he was president of the International Society of Electrochemists. In 1973, together with Patrick J. Hendra and A. James McQuillan, he played an important role in the discovery of Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering effect (SERS), for which the University of Southampton was awarded a National Chemical Landmark plaque by the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2013, and he developed the
ultramicroelectrode An ultramicroelectrode (UME) is a working electrode used in a voltammetry. The small size of UME give them large diffusion layers and small overall currents. These features allow UME to achieve useful steady-state conditions and very high scan rat ...
in the 1980s. In 1979, he was awarded the medal for electrochemistry and
thermodynamics Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws of the ...
by the
Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
of London. In 1982 he retired from the University of Southampton. In 1985 he received the
Olin Palladium Award The Olin Palladium Award (formerly the Palladium Medal Award) was established by The Electrochemical Society (ECS) in 1950 and is presented every 2 years to recognize outstanding contributions to the fundamental understanding of all types of electro ...
from the
Electrochemical Society The Electrochemical Society is a learned society (professional association) based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of electrochemistry and solid-state science and related technology. The Society membership compris ...
, and in 1986 was elected to the
Fellowship of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematics ...
. He retired from teaching in 1983 and was given an honorary professorship at Southampton University.


Fellowships, prizes and awards

* Secretary/Treasurer of the International Society of Electrochemistry (1964–1967) * President of the International Society of Electrochemistry (1973–1974) * Electrochemistry and Thermodynamics Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry (1979) * Fellowship of the Royal Society (1985) * Olin Palladium Medal of the Electrochemical Society (1986)


Cold fusion (1983 to 1992)

Fleischmann confided to
Stanley Pons Bobby Stanley Pons (born August 23, 1943) is an American electrochemist known for his work with Martin Fleischmann on cold fusion in the 1980s and 1990s. Early life Pons was born in Valdese, North Carolina. He attended Valdese High School, then ...
that he might have found what he believed to be a way to create nuclear fusion at room temperatures. From 1983 to 1989, he and Pons spent $100,000 in self-funded experiments at the
University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...
. Fleischmann wanted to publish it first in an obscure journal, and had already spoken with a team that was doing similar work in a different university for a joint publication. The details have not surfaced, but it seems that the University of Utah wanted to establish priority over the discovery and its patents by making a public announcement before the publication.Shamoo, 2003
86
/ref>Simon, 2002
28–36
/ref> In an interview with ''
60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique styl ...
'' on 19 April 2009, Fleischmann said that the public announcement was the university's idea, and that he regretted doing it. This decision, perceived as short-circuiting the way science is usually communicated to other scientists, later caused heavy criticism against Fleischmann and Pons. On 23 March 1989 the work was announced at a press conference as "a sustained nuclear fusion reaction," which was quickly labelled by the press as
cold fusion Cold fusion is a hypothesized type of nuclear reaction that would occur at, or near, room temperature. It would contrast starkly with the "hot" fusion that is known to take place naturally within stars and artificially in hydrogen bombs and p ...
– a result previously thought to be unattainable. On 26 March Fleischmann warned on the ''
Wall Street Journal Report ''On the Money'', formerly ''The Wall Street Journal Report'', is an American syndicated weekly television program airing on weekends, and on Sunday evenings on CNBC. The program is hosted by Becky Quick. Political, business, and economic figu ...
'' not to try replications until a published paper was available two weeks later in ''
Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry The ''Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal on electroanalytical chemistry, published by Elsevier twice per month. It was originally established in 1959 under the current name, but was known as the ''Jour ...
'', but that did not stop hundreds of scientists who had already started work at their laboratories the moment they heard the news on 23 March,Simon, 2002, pag
35
/ref> and more often than not they failed to reproduce the effects. Those who failed to reproduce the claim attacked the pair for fraudulent, sloppy, and unethical work;Shamoo, 2003, page
7697
/ref> incomplete,Simon, 2002, p
119
/ref> unreproducible, and inaccurate results; and erroneous interpretations. When the paper was finally published, both electrochemists and physicists called it "sloppy" and "uninformative", and it was said that, had Fleischmann and Pons waited for the publication of their paper, most of the trouble would have been avoided because scientists would not have gone so far in trying to test their work.Simon, 2002
p. 43
/ref> Fleischmann and Pons sued an Italian journalist who had published very harsh criticisms against them, but the judge rejected the case saying that criticisms were appropriate given the scientists' behaviour, the lack of evidence since the first announcement, and the lack of interest shown by the scientific community, and that they were an expression of the journalist's "right of reporting".Simon, 2002, pags
110–112
/ref>


Retirement (from 1992)

In 1992, Fleischmann moved to France with Pons to continue their work at the IMRA laboratory (part of Technova Corporation, a subsidiary of
Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...
), but in 1995 he retired and returned to England.Simon, 2002, p
137
/ref> He co-authored further papers with researchers from the US Navy and Italian national laboratories (INFN and ENEA), on the subject of cold fusion. In March 2006, "Solar Energy Limited" division "D2Fusion Inc" announced in a press release that Fleischmann, then 79, would be acting as their senior scientific advisor.


Death

Fleischmann died at home in
Tisbury, Wiltshire Tisbury is a large village and civil parish approximately west of Salisbury in the English county of Wiltshire. With a population at the 2011 census of 2,253 it is a centre for communities around the upper River Nadder and Vale of Wardour. The ...
on 3 August 2012, of natural causes. He had suffered from Parkinson's disease, diabetes and heart disease. He was survived by his son Nicholas and his two daughters, Vanessa and Charlotte.


Legacy

While holding the Faraday Chair of Electrochemistry he and Graham Hills established in the late 60s the now renowned Electrochemistry Group of the University of Southampton. Fleischmann produced over 272 scientific papers and book chapters on the field of electrochemistry. He contributed to the fundamental theory of: *
Potentiostat A potentiostat is the electronic hardware required to control a three electrode cell and run most electroanalytical experiments. A ''Bipotentiostat'' and ''polypotentiostat'' are potentiostats capable of controlling two working electrodes and ...
design *
Microelectrode A microelectrode is an electrode used in electrophysiology either for recording neural signals or for the electrical stimulation of nervous tissue (they were first developed by Ida Hyde in 1921). Pulled glass pipettes with tip diameters of 0. ...
s * Electrochemical nucleation *
Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy or surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is a surface-sensitive technique that enhances Raman scattering by molecules adsorbed on rough metal surfaces or by nanostructures such as plasmonic-magnetic silica ...
* In-situ X-ray techniques * Organic electrochemistry *
Electrochemical engineering Electrochemical engineering is the branch of chemical engineering dealing with the technological applications of electrochemical phenomena, such as electrosynthesis of chemicals, electrowinning and refining of metals, flow batteries and fuel cells, ...
* Biological electrodes * Corrosion The Martin Fleischmann Memorial Project was started in 2012 in his honour to gather together research from around the world connected to LENR, or Low Energy Nuclear Reactions


Peer-reviewed papers on "Cold Fusion"

* * *


References


Further reading

* by David Voss * *


External links

* Book on Fleischmann's scientific contributions as electrochemis


Interview: Fusion in a cold climate
2009, New Scientist
''The Believers'' movie official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fleischmann, Martin 1927 births 2012 deaths Cold fusion Academic scandals Academics of the University of Southampton British chemists Electrochemists British people of Czech-Jewish descent Alumni of Imperial College London People educated at Worthing High School University of Utah staff Fellows of the Royal Society Czechoslovak refugees People with diabetes Neurological disease deaths in England Deaths from Parkinson's disease